We can count on one hand the number of times that Sardar Biglari has talked with the press in the 17 years in which we’ve covered his activities. And we’d still have enough fingers remaining to hold some beef tallow fries.
And so we were surprised to see that he talked with an actual journalist, for the New York Post, over the weekend.
The story talks both about Biglari’s track record at Steak n Shake, which has taken on a very MAGA-like marketing persona over the past couple of years, with some sales success. Biglari also takes a few shots at Cracker Barrel. If you’re going there expecting anything but a superficial look at either instance, you will be sorely disappointed.
Let’s start with the Cracker Barrel stuff. Biglari took the opportunity to criticize Cracker Barrel’s “$700 million glow-up” over the summer, notably the logo fiasco. Of course, there is nothing in the piece about the fact that paid bots accounted for more than 40% of the social media criticism of the logo, but who are we to pick nits.
“Management knew the customer base wouldn’t care for the changes, but it did them anyway,” Biglari said. “They sought to destroy the soul of the core brand and replace it with something very different in a long-shot gamble to gain a new demographic.”
We’ll say this: If it were indeed true that Cracker Barrel knew that its customers wouldn’t like the changes, and did them anyway, that would be a major sin, and a stupid one at that.
Brands have to walk a tightrope on such rebrandings—try to lure new customers without alienating the old customers. At worst, Cracker Barrel slipped on that tightrope and hit its head. But deliberate? Please.
Also, we’ll remind folks that Biglari himself abandoned Steak n Shake’s long-time customers by switching from a full-service to a counter-service model. Oh, and he put his picture inside every restaurant and attached his name to the company logo. But if we had a nickel for the number of times Biglari accused a company of a sin he himself has engaged in, we’d have a lot of nickels.
Julie Masino, Cracker Barrel’s CEO, did not shy away from Biglari last week at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit, saying that the investor “is making many misinformed statements.”
Anyway, let’s move on, because he again compared himself to one of history’s greatest artists.
“When you are turning around a business, you are a sculptor,” he said. “When Michelangelo sculpted, he said he saw the angel in the marble and carved until he set him free.”
Uh …
“It is a simple philosophy,” he said. “And our customers want authenticity, quality products, great service and reasonable prices. Nothing complicated.”
OK so I agree with the last comment. I do not agree with the former. It’s not the first time he’s compared Steak n Shake with Michelangelo’s Angel. We’d prefer he stop doing this because it’s not good for our digestive system. It’s just such a weird comparison. I mean, sure? Perhaps he looked at Steak n Shake and thought, “burgers and fries” and then took out everything that wasn’t that. But Michelangelo? Come on.
Regardless, it also ignores the fact that Biglari for years insisted in a low-price-at-all-costs strategy with Steak n Shake that nearly put the chain into bankruptcy before the investor saved it at the last minute. He has since been engaged in one of the riskiest turnarounds we’ve ever seen. It’s been helped along with a shrewd target of the MAGA crowd with crypto payments and beef tallow fries and giant American flags like Perkins used to fly. But it is risky nonetheless.
As for Cracker Barrel, Biglari has shed the bulk of his investment in the company, to help fund the Steak n Shake turnaround and buy up stock in other chains, notably Jack in the Box and El Pollo Loco. At one point he owned close to 20% of Cracker Barrel stock. That is now down to 3%.